Selectmen have decided that a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration will do them more good in objecting to airplane noise in Milton than formally appealing an FAA study and decision.

The FAA last month implemented a change in departures from Logan Airport’s Runway 33L that concentrated air traffic in a 3-mile radius that includes Milton.

Residents have been filing an increasing number of noise complaints because of the number of planes flying over Milton on their way to and from Logan.

The noise has inspired residents to create the Milton Citizens Committee on Aviation Impacts, whose members pleaded with selectmen Wednesday night to pursue an appeal of the FAA runway decisions.

John Flynn, the town’s lawyer, responded by citing several issues that would be involved in filing an appeal.

The first challenge, he said, is that an appeal would have to be filed by Saturday.

Flynn said fighting the FAA would be difficult because the agency has accumulated substantial information that it would use to argue its case. He recommended that selectmen recruit an aviation expert to provide a knowledge base from which Milton could argue its case.

“In order to properly pursue an appeal, you need a higher consultant – someone to help dissect the evidence,” Flynn said.

Selectman Kathleen Conlon said airplane noise is the only battle Milton should be fighting, and that starting with a non-legal approach was the best idea.

“(The noise) affects enough people in Milton that it’s an issue,” she said. “The question is whether we spend money fighting Runway 33L or fighting the bigger issue of the total noise over Milton. In my mind, that battle makes more sense.“”

Selectman Annemarie Fagan said she reached out to Newton, Belmont, Dedham, Canton, Randolph and Hull about the noise from Runway 33L. Most of the towns reported receiving few noise complaints, she said, and none were inclined to join a formal appeal of the new flight patterns.

That may have changed. Hull this week formed a new committee with the goal of mitigating noise from Logan flights after a sharp increase in noise complaints in recent weeks.